StDev214R, Surviving College Reading

Fall 2013, 2 credits

Strategy Workshop and Speeding Up Lab

Is this the class for you?

WHO

This course is for you if you. . .

  • feel overwhelmed by the reading demands of your college classes,
  • feel you read too slowly to finish your assignments in a timely manner,
  • find your mind wandering while you read, and
  • usually feel you do not understand the reading material well enough.

This course is geared for underclassmen wanting to handle heavy reading loads well.

WHAT

In this experiential, hands-on class, you will learnstrategies tomake sense of your difficult texts, remember better what you read, and speed up your reading of academic texts. The focus is authentic practice of key reading strategies using texts for your other courses. While you are developing the strategies, you are also completing your reading assignments!

Each strategy lesson has two parts:

  1. A survival reading strategy is explained, demonstrated, and practiced.
  2. Coached practice on your own text and a speeding up lab.

This is a skills class so regular practice is essential. If you attend, work hard during class, and practice the strategies regularly on texts for your other classes, you will probably do as our former students: make substantial progress in comprehending, remembering, and speeding up your reading of academic texts.

Homework load

  1. You read about the strategy in the course handbook—about 10 to 20 minutes per week.
  2. You may be asked to watch a video or animated ppt demonstrating the strategy,
  3. You apply the strategies to reading the texts for your other classes, initially using a ThinkSheet.
  4. You report and reflect on the processes involved in your reading by completing entries on a reading log–takes about 5 to15 minutes a day.
  5. You practice speeding up a half hour a day--using textbooks for your other classes or easier texts of your choice—and complete entries on a Speeding Up Chart.

Cost

  1. Handbook Surviving College Reading, about $20.
  2. Syllabus with reading logs, about $10.
  3. ReadMate, a device that helps you speed up. You may buy it in the bookstore ($73.50 new or about $55.00 used), may buy an app (if available) for certain smart phones (price TBA), or, may check it out for four hours from the Media Resource Center in the HBLL.

why

This course helps you answer these essential questions and apply all the concepts to your own reading:

1.What are a few keystrategies that can I use before I read, while I read, and after I read to actively construct meaning and remember important information?

2.How can I speed up my reading of academic texts?

3.How do I adapt the reading strategies to the wide variety of difficult texts I have to read in college?

4.What can I do to enter the reading experience with energy, engagement, and fascination?

REGISTRATION INFORMATION, FALL 2013

Section / DAYS / TIMES / PLACE / Instructor
Sect. 005 / MW / 2:00-2:50 p.m. / 238 MCKB / Julie Preece, Ph.D.

If you really want to take the class and it is full, come the first day because several students usually drop. No auditing of the course is allowed.